The Surge Review

The best way to describe The Surge is a sci-fi version of Dark Souls or Lords of the Fallen. There are some differences between the games, but for fans of this genre this game should be a must buy. Join The Gamers Lounge as we attempt to play this and find out if this is the kind of game newcomers to the genre could enjoy as well.

The Surge starts by introducing players to the CREO corporation, which appears to be one of the many mega corporations that runs Earth in the future. The world as people know it has gotten pretty bad. Gamers play as Warren, a paraplegic who is looking for work. CREO gives people a second chance by grafting individuals to a powered exoskeleton. This part of the game reminded me of Elysium. But like with everything, nothing goes right, and Warren gets his suit, but the operation has a failure and he is left to die in a scrapyard.

So much for the heavy construction promotion I was promised in the intro. Players will learn quickly that they are not alone in this junkyard. In the first 10 minutes I encountered easy to kill drones and learned some of the basics to attack and move. A quick summary, players can dodge and block while forming combos with light and heavy attacks. The second kind of enemy I ran into were deformed cyber humans. I found out one of the selling points of the combat was the option to target certain body parts.

The Surge pushes players to use careful timing in combat. Players will need to wait for an opening and be ready to dodge when engaging with the enemy. The right amount of damage to limbs opens up dismemberment attacks which finish off an opponent in a grisly fashion. This works best if players are taking on 1 enemy at a time. The controls for the combat work well, everything is quick and responsive. There are no shields in The Surge and blocking is only effective part of the time. Everything players do in the Surge drains stamina. Players will need to keep an eye on this while engaging enemies.

The tech scrap players collect can be used to upgrade weapons and add to armor. Players can wear armor on every part of their body. This includes head, legs, arms, torso and it doesn't have to match. Some of it adds different boosts to stats for defense and offense. Players also have access to implants which can provide healing, stamina boosts, and access to more health, as well as a few other bonuses. These implants, armor use, and weapons drain the suit’s core power. The core can be upgraded with scrap, which will let players utilize better armor, use stronger weapons and of course, have more implants.

I leveled up pretty quickly in a few hours. I found a few weapons I liked and stuck with them. Most of them had medium stats vs. being faster or doing more damage. The boss fights are no cakewalk and I struggled with the first few. As players wander through the industrial facilities in The Surge they can collect audio logs which fill in bits of the lore about the game. Players will also unlock new paths back to the OPS Center where they can return to upgrade weapons and armor, as well as heal.

I enjoyed the Sci-Fi theme of the game. I didn’t like that the game gets hard fast. The controls in combat are good, but the jumping and running around in the environment can get annoying quickly due to the funky control scheme. I can recommend the game to people familiar with the genre, but for new players The Surge might be too much. Overall the game is an interesting take on the genre.